Most Unpleasant Lunch

Okay. I just got back from lunch and I tell you I had one of the most unpleasant lunches I have in a long time.

No, the food was fine.

The service was good.

Nothing wrong with the lunch itself.

Then what was so unpleasant about the lunch?

There was a large table with five senior citizens. I didn't notice at first that there was one lady sitting at one end and four others sitting at the other end. The lady sitting by herself never stopped talking. It wasn't that she was overtly obnoxiously loud, but she was loud enough that all the people at our end of the restaurant could hear her every word.

I could tell you all kinds of things about her husband, her children, grandchildren, their illnesses and health issues and what medications they are taking to combat that. I can tell you how much her medications cost. I could tell you lots of stuff.

She never stopped talking. The entire time I was there for lunch. It wasn't as if the others were having a conversation with her. She just never stopped talking. They barely got in a word or two. I've never seen anything like it.

The other ladies were looking at their watches - (hint, hint), and when this lady didn't get the hint, the other four ladies put on their coats (HINT!, HINT!), but the lady just kept chattering away.

As if that wasn't annoying enough, she was extremely rude to the Hispanic waitress, saying things in everyone's - including the waitress - hearing, "I'm not going to tip. She doesn't deserve it!"

I didn't see anything that the waitress said or did. She was a fine waitress with everyone else.

And to top it all off - she's a Christian. She said so very proudly. She talked about her church, her Bible Study group, her senior citizen's small group, about how difficult it is to read the announcements on the screen, how things are not the way they used to be, etc.

She was still talking when I left.

Her friends were still sitting there with their coats on looking at their watch.

Man, that makes me sad. Why did she have to be a Christian? What does that say about our God?

I know. I'm a pastor and I shouldn't think things like that. But when I saw the look on her friend's faces, the look of the waitress, it just breaks my heart.